Religious Education
Catholic Schools Inspectorate Report, 26th-27th March 2025.
Some of the highlights from the Religious inspection report on 26th-27th March 2025 include:
- The provision for the Catholic life and mission of the school is outstanding because there is a lived sense of community in the quality of the relationships observed within the school and playground.
- The care and attention given to prayer spaces is wonderful and truly enhances the life of the school.
- There is a strong senior leadership team, with a headteacher who has a clear vision of how good the school can be.
- The governing body is strong, supportive and visionary.
- Staff demonstrate good subject knowledge and teaching ability relating to the age range they teach and have high expectations of the pupils.
- There are excellent links with the parish which are valued by school staff, parishioners and families.
- School are unwavering in their support of children and their families, including the most vulnerable.
- Pupils work well independently and collaboratively. Behaviour and attitudes to learning across all age phases in religious education lessons and around the school are excellent.
- St John’s is a prayerful community with Christ at its heart; prayer and liturgy are central to all aspects of school life.
- A strength of the prayer life of the school is the way in which older pupils lead a variety of liturgical celebrations for their peers.
We are proud to report that our school received extremely positive feedback and received 7 out of 9 ‘outstanding’ grades, with the remaining 2 grades being ‘good’. The inspectors commended the dedication of our staff, our hard-working and knowledgeable pupils, our strong governing body and the fantastic support we receive from our parents and parish community. We were especially pleased that the inspectors recognised the warm and inclusive atmosphere in school. During feedback with senior leaders, the inspection team commented how St John’s is a “special school” and expressed “how lovely it would be to be a child in our school”.
As a Catholic School we are deeply committed to developing and enhancing the talents and potential of each child by providing an ethos that reflects the Gospel values and enables each one to grow in faith.
We understand that all children have their own unique relationship with God, for some this has been nurtured and developed within the home, whilst others receive their first awareness of the Church community at school.
For all our children the religious teaching will be the foundation of the entire educational process and the beliefs and values studied will inspire and draw together every aspect of our school community.
We aim to enable the children to be active participants in RE through our curriculum as well as our whole school and class worships, Masses and celebrations. These all allow our children to feel that they are all an important part of our school community.
We aim to show the relationship between life and faith through:
1. Exploring the Mystery of God and His Creation.
2. Sharing the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
3. Fostering a sense of community where each person is respected, valued and encouraged to feel confident and supported in their faith journey.
4. Developing an awareness and appreciation of the gift of faith to which they may respond positively within their daily life.
5. Developing skills of thinking critically, spiritually, ethically and theologically.
Religious Education is a core subject in our school and is taught for at least 10% of the weekly timetable. This complies with the Requirements of the Bishops of England and Wales.
With support from the Lancaster Diocese, we introduced the the new Religious Education Directory (RED) 'To know you more Clearly' in Reception, Year 1 and Year 3 in 2023/24. This school year Y2 and Y4 are also working from the new RED. The new RED will be compulsory in all Catholic schools in all classes by September 2026.
This new scheme seeks to present the teaching of religious education in a sequential and progressive form, rooted in the liturgical year. The framework has four structural elements:
Knowledge lenses which indicate what should be known by the end of each age phase. These are split into hear, believe, live and celebrate.
The ‘ways of knowing’ are the skills which develop as the children progress through their curriculum journey. These are split into understand, discern and respond.
Expected outcomes are set for each age phase and indicate what pupils are expected to know, remember and be able to do.
Curriculum branches are the way the programme of study presents its model curriculum. There are six half term branches which are the same in each year group:
Autumn 1- Creation and Covenant - Encounter the God who creates and calls all people with a focus on the accounts of Creation.
Autumn 2- Prophecy and Promise - Explore the expectant waiting for the Messiah through the Advent season.
Spring 1- Galilee to Jerusalem - Experience the ministry of Jesus and the Word of God. They will learn through parables, encounters, miracles and teachings.
Spring 2- Desert to Garden - Study the season of Lent and its culmination in the events of Holy Week.
Summer 1- To the ends of the Earth - Study the events that flowed from the Resurrection and Ascension in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostles and early Church.
Summer 2- Dialogue and Encounter - Learn how Christians work together with people of different religious backgrounds, building an understand that all people work towards a common good and should respect all humanity.
We assess children's learning and attainment through the expected outcomes, on a termly basis. These are reported to parents at the end of the year in the detailed pupil report. Internal moderation of their work, as well as moderation alongside other Diocesan schools, serves as a benchmark to support teacher assessment throughout the year.
At St. John's we view Religious Education as an integral part of learning and formation. An indicator of success will be the amount of pleasure and knowledge gained by the children from the study of RE and a deepening of their personal knowledge, understanding and response to Jesus through their service of others. This supports the children to love themselves, love each other and love Jesus.
If you would like more information about curriculum RE, please see our RE lead, Mr McGrath, who would be happy to help you.
